diogenesian discourse

The keyboard is mightier than the machine gun... The political, philosophical and general outpourings of a troubled soul living in Australia and blogging his Vietnam veteran's head off.

Nothing in this blog can be believed. If you think that
anything in this blog is true or factual, you'll need to verify
it from another source. Do you understand? No? Then read it again,
and repeat this process, until you understand that you cannot sue
me for anything you read here. Also, having been sucked into taking
part in the mass-murder of more than 3 million Vietnamese people
on behalf of U.S. Big Business "interests", I'm as mad as a cut snake (and broke) so it might be a bit silly to try to sue me anyway...

Monday, October 31, 2005

indict george w. bush...

I hereby charge George W. Bush with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

* Stop lawful enterprises from going about their business except via peaceful, nonviolent mass protest on public space (e.g. streets.)

I'm saying that due to the times in which we currently live (and the rights of others), we need to get A LOT SMARTER in how we express dissent and mount protest actions. There's so much more but I don't know how to adequately articulate it right now, but I guess my ideas are too way out - which is why I am not getting directly involved in any movements.

If you want to debate/discuss this, then maybe this is enough for openers.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

A letter to Mr Ruddock...

Intro for my non-Australian readers: Currently, here in Australia, our government is trying to rush a bill through parliament, largely undebated if it can get its way, which would give our security agencies powers which the Gestapo would have smiled benignly upon...

In response to the arrest and deportation of U.S. peace activist Scott Parkin, I sent a letter to our Federal Attorney-General.

He, Philip Ruddock, sent me a reply which I considered to be utterly inadequate, a quality which I suspect the AG is quite familiar with...

I wish to follow up on comments which you made (especially in the light of the current draft anti-terrorism legislation awaiting debate [sic] in the Senate). I'm very serious about this, because as it stands, being a peace activist myself, I am one of the people who, I fear, will be another of the people illegally detained under your New World Order.

For your information, I am a "blogger" (an internet-based social commentator with attitude), and a Vietnam Veteran who has returned his medals to Mr Howard in absolute disgust at his government's decision to join the Coalition of the Oil Swilling in their war crimes against the people of Iraq. My blog's URL, should you wish to acquaint yourself with its contents (and I think you might well learn something from doing so), is http://diogenes999.blogspot.com.

So, Mr Ruddock, these are my as yet unresolved issues with your letter:

You said ASIO had assessed Parkin to be a "risk to Australia's national security", implying that they did so because they felt he was promoting "politically motivated violence, including violent political protest activity."

So far so good...

Then you say, virtually, "but, na na nanana, they (ASIO) don't have to tell you or anyone else the facts upon which they based their assessment". I find this utterly unacceptable and deplorable. You are virtually saying that the Government does not have to explain itself to the people for the actions it takes. What hubris is this?

But you go even further into the realm of Orwellian doublespeak: You tell me that Parkin could "test the lawfulness of the decisions that have been made", whilst stating that there is no "legal requirement to provide (the information on which the assessment was made) to the subject of the assessment". Excuse me Mr Australia's Most Senior Attorney, is this not like saying "you may try to defend yourself against the charges, but we will not disclose any details about the evidence on which these charges are based."???? Please tell me exactly when we moved away from the Westminster legal system and how this was ratified by any government in Australia.

In 1968 I went to Vietnam on the orders of a Liberal Government (not unlike the present one), at the behest of the contrivances orchestrated by the U.S. government (not unlike the present one), to defend our "freedom and democracy". I believed those lying bastards way back then because I did not know any better way back then, but I sure as heck know a thing or two these days, Mr Ruddock !!!

Mr Ruddock, as one of those poor schmucks you and your ilk are so "reluctantly" wont to dispatch to all corners of the globe to do the killing and the dying for your Big Business buddies (I notice that few sons or daughters of politicians ever get sent to do this dirty work), PLEASE EXPLAIN !

(my name)Vietnam VeteranFighter for FreedomFighter for DemocracyWitness to War CrimesAustralian Citizen Disgusted With The Current Regime (D'oh, that's you and your mates, Phil...)

Monday, October 24, 2005

not as we know it...

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." Samuel P. Huntington

It's civilisation, Jim, but not as we know it... Not as we know it....

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

meditate on this...

Ok, relax...

get comfortable...

breathe deeply...

and when you've reached a nice relaxed mindstate, meditate on this. (Repeat as required.) You'll know you've watched it often enough when it starts featuring in your dreams complete with an appropriately hellish ending... Maybe skewered on Lucifer's pitchfork? Hmmm? Not recommended for Bush supporters...

Are we digesting this thing yet, boys and girls? Are we joining the dots?

Do you know what happens to the stockmarket when the economy shrivels like a spent Willie? Have you ever seen what a mouse plague or locust plague does to its environment? Well, the human plague is doing that to the whole globe. And like the mice and locusts in those plagues, we will die in humungous numbers when we've stripped the global environment bare. And now you know why we face perpetual "terrorism". We, the "privileged" will always make sure that the "underprivileged" will do the dying first, and in large numbers.

Do you really think the "underprivilaged" will take this lying down? They know they cannot confront us with military might, so for them, "terrorism" is a last stand. It's a "you might screw us, but we'll take as many as is possible with us before we go" kind of desperate, final, grand gesture thing.

We, for our part, seem to think that by getting even more brutal with them, even more oppressive, even more exploitative, that we will somehow lessen their desire to take as many of us as is possible with them before we kill them? Our kill ratio, which runs at something like ten innocent people for every "guilty bastard" is sure to generate steady stream of "terrorists".

Oh yeah, this is the answer to overpopulation alright...

Have we really become that psychopathic as a "civilisation"? Are we really going to stand by silently and be a party to this? In the name of a capitalism gone mad? In the name of our "God"? In the name of "Intelligent Design"? Nah... You know it will be in the name of "freedom" and "democracy"...

And those supporting this psychopathic shit are accomplices to the biggest crime against humanity in living memory. I am SO pissed off !!!

National sovereignty is a quaint joke these days with the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank all dictating to nations' governments how they must re-write their industrial and investment laws. Howard's new IR changes are a perfect example of that. The real authors of those laws are "the globalisation suits" form the WTO, the IMF and the Word Bank, only in Howard's case it's even more direct than that - The Yanks are telling Howard what to write.

Capitalism has gone global and totalitarian. Socialist systems are to be dismantled and outlawed.

Dissent is in the process of being outlawed.

Individuals don't come into it. They have bugger-all power and it will become illegal soon for individuals to "engage with their fellow human beings" in any form of anti-war or anti-globalisation protests.

And dissent activists are too Neanderthal to realise they have to operate within very finely tuned boundaries to be effective, to stay within the new laws, and to gain the sort of mass support needed to change the body politic.

Democracy is a dead duck and global fascism is all but fully in control. The window of opportunity for social change through dissent and people power is being slammed shut and arseholes within the dissent movements indulging in what I call cowboy tactics are playing straight into the hands of the fascists. They are their own worst enemies. They still believe that baiting and provoking the authorities is the way to go. They are to applied psychology what an innumerate idiot is to higher mathematics. They may as well be working for ASIO, the CIA etc. for all the good they are doing.

Political violence will be brutally crushed and cannot work either.

So forget social change, it's a quaintly naiive dream dreamt by idiots. The Fascists own the world and it's all over Red Rover.

CNNNN interviews Yankee morons...

This link is to a video clip by CNNNN. If you're on 56k modem it takes a while to load but it's well worth persevering with it to get some real traction on what sort of lunatics keep Bush in power over there.

Monday, October 03, 2005

terra nullius...

foreword to the epilogue...

I'm near the end of this blog. I've really got very little else to say that I haven't already said several times and in several different ways. I'm not articulate or erudite enough to be anything but a ranting blogger and there's only so much rant the world should be subjected to, so I'll soon leave the pontifications and analyses to those more equipped for making sense of the world or indeed "saving" it.

So there are just a few things I'll rant about in the coming weeks/days which I feel need to be said to round this thing off, and then I'll stop posting here. I'll leave the blog "up" until some external influence causes it to disappear, but it will be "up" as a terminated blog. Just a lump of flotsam bobbing about in the blogosphere... Turds and cesspits come to mind...

I want to thank all of you who have spent time reading and commenting on this blog. There is the email link if you want to communicate with me personally.

The counter shown below displays the number of Israeli military personnel refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories. I applaud their integrity and their strength of character. To me they are heroes of peace and humanity.